Sanctions May Not Curb Pyongyang's Nuclear Ambitions1:46

The United Nations has adopted tougher sanctions against North Korea, but experts say sanctions alone are unlikely to stop the country from pushing forward with its nuclear-weapons program.

December 1st 2016

a year ago

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IT’S the biggest hotel in the world, with 3000 rooms built over a staggering 105 levels.

But if you try and make a booking here, forget it, because you won’t have a lot of luck scoring a bed. That could all be about to change, however, as rumours are rife that North Korea’s Ryugyong Hotel is about to open its doors after 30 years, NK News reported. According to the American-based site, lights were spotted in at least three rooms of the hotel, the first sign of life since windows and a telecommunication mast were added five years ago. In video obtained by NK News, the lights can be seen on two different floors, suggesting a “stable electricity connection exists to the very highest point of the building”. It comes as Egyptian development company Orascom reportedly flew in Pyongyang to discuss the future of the hotel. The company’s CEO Naguib Sawiris was rumoured to be at the meeting, possibly to discuss its future. Orascom is the majority shareholder in North Korea’s Koryolink phone network and added windows to the building in 2008 under a $400 million telecommunications deal. Dubbed the Hotel of Gloom, the building itself cost a staggering $595 million to construct but has been plagued by numerous construction issues. Beginning in 1987 under then-leader Kim Il-sung in a bid to lure more tourists to his country, the hotel has been a project years in the making. Construction was stopped in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union and funding into North Korea but work began again the following decade. PLAGUED BY PROBLEMS The 330m-tall building was set to open in 2012, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of “Eternal President” Kim Il-Sung. However despite talks of luxury hotels opening in the building in recent years nothing has eventuated. Author and North Korean expert Marcus Noland said the European Union Chamber of Commerce found the hotel was irreparable during an inspection in the 1990s, The Telegraph reported. The building had several construction issues including poor quality concrete and crooked elevator shafts. Esquire called it “North Korean version of Cinderella’s castle” and “the worst building in the history of mankind”. BUILDING BOOM? According to CNN, North Korea’s infrastructure spending has been growing nearly 10 per cent annually since 2014. Singapore University of Technology and Design adjunct assistant professor Calvin Chua, who provides architect training to North Koreans, told CNN Pyongyang was orderly. Prof Chu said most of the buildings were made of concrete because that’s the material most easily accessible and steel imports, even from China, were too expensive. While most of the city was flattened by the Korean War in the 1950s, many of the buildings today are influenced from other communist nations such as the former East Germany and the Soviet Union. However, despite an apparent building boom, he said the city did contain a number of vacant buildings.